Sanguine Dreams
by Archemios
Summary: Lucy finally gets her wish to become a vampire, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. Warning: Character death and gore. Read at your own risk.
1. Chapter 1

**Like I said, I'm doing some one-shots on the side. No idea where this concept came from. Also, sorry for the poor ending. Endings are my weakness :/**

 **Figured I'd do something more family-oriented than incestuous, but for my Lewd House readers, feel free to read into it however you want :P**

In retrospect, being a vampire was not as cracked up as she thought it would be. To borrow one of Luan's poorly-written jokes, it _sucked_.

Get it?

In all seriousness, her gothic literature and vampire romance shows had prepared her for a completely different lifestyle than the one she was currently forced to live. So far, the only thing that had happened that _was_ true about her vampire fantasy was the attractiveness of vampires. The boy she let infect her had certainly been gorgeous, but she was dismayed to learn that changes in appearance were the result of powerful psychic attacks, not a natural increase in beauty. There was a coven, like in her books, but it was a creepy gathering of blood fetishists and cannibals rather than an aristocratic court.

No, Lucy Loud was not having a fun time with her knew "powers". All that had really improved was her intellect, which was already quite advanced for her young age. True, her senses, reflexes, and strength had all increased a thousand-fold, but what good were those if she never really used them? Reading Lovecraft in absolute darkness – thanks to her night vision – had been cool, for sure, but that got old really fast. Lynn never got the upper-hand against her anymore, either; Lucy was too fast, too agile, and too strong to ever lose to her older sister again.

None of these improvements made up for what she lost, though. Lucy only thought she felt empty before, nihilistically questioning the point of life. Now there was a gnawing need for life and fulfillment, as well as the sinking sensation she could never have it. Then there was her aversion to sunlight. Lucy had never really liked bright light, and sunlight least of all, but now it literally burned her upon exposure. She, fortunately, did not turn to ash, like some movies led her to believe, but she sure felt like it. Worse still, even inside she felt considerably weak during the daytime. School was virtually unbearable.

And then there was the hunger, the thirst. She couldn't control it, couldn't control herself. In class, she found herself losing focus on what was being taught, her advanced hearing picking up the rhythmic heartbeats of her classmates, her keen vision seeing the veins on her peers gently throbbing. Lucy felt her hands shake whenever she was near a living being. She had tried feeding on rodents, tried to substitute human blood with that of animals, but nothing worked. Worse still, she was becoming increasingly desperate, viewing her family as little a food source.

She knew she would die without blood. The thought of death had never frightened her as a mortal, but now it was terrifying. If vampires existed, if she was feeling the emptiness of existence without a soul… then what would happen to her if she died? Without a soul, would she cease to exist? How long she had wished for just that, and yet when faced with it, it terrified her.

Despite all that, she couldn't bring herself to feed off of her family or friends, not even on strangers. She was going to become weaker and weaker, falling deeper in desperation and pain until she finally died. The thought of it all made her want to cry.

She didn't notice the tears in her eyes until they were spilling onto the cool metal of the air duct she was hiding in. Part of her wanted to dry her eyes and toughen up, but she couldn't hold them in. Her silent weeping turned into sobbing that racked her body with juddering shakes. She didn't notice her name being called until a hand rested on her shoulder.

"What?" Lucy jumped as if slapped, turning to face her brother, "Lincoln?"

"Lucy, what on Earth is wrong?" the 11-year-old asked, face lined with worry, "I could hear you all the way to my room!"

"S-sorry," Lucy turned away as much to dry her eyes as to quit looking at Lincoln's pulsing veins, "You wouldn't understand. You should leave."

"No," Lincoln furrowed his brow, "You've been acting distant, like… more so than usual. I should have said something earlier – it's obvious something is hurting you."

Lucy sighed.

"Lucy, please," Lincoln wrapped his arms around his younger sister, "if something is bothering you, don't shut me out. I'm your older brother; seeing you in pain… it hurts me, Lucy. Please, tell me what's wrong."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Lucy grimaced.

"Try me," Lincoln grinned.

"I… I've become a vampire," Lucy said, feeling like an idiot for saying it aloud.

"Lucy, I'm being serious," Lincoln said, "I can't help you if you dodge the question with stories."

"It's not a story," Lucy sighed again, "I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

Lincoln looked unconvinced, but he had the tact not to voice his skepticism.

"Well, didn't you always want to be a vampire?" he asked, "I mean, this should be like a dream come true for you."

"I thought it would be, but…" the goth curled up tighter, "it's a nightmare."

"Don't you have cool powers?" Lincoln smirked, still playing along.

"I have advanced reflexes and senses," Lucy shrugged, "along with immortality and super strength, but… I've lost so much more, Lincoln. You don't understand."

"I don't know if I can help you, Lucy," Lincoln sighed before holding his hand out to her, "but I'd sure like to try."

Lucy stared at the offered hand.

"I…" she began, "I do need your help. I need to feed."

"Feed?" Lincoln's hand recoiled a bit, but he stayed strong. Surely Lucy wasn't serious?

"I've been a vampire for nearly a week now, but I haven't fed on anyone," she explained, "I know I have to, but I can't bring myself to hurt anyone. If someone were willing to let me feed off them, I might be able to survive."

"Lucy, I can't believe you're seriously asking to suck my blood," Lincoln snorted.

"I knew you didn't believe me," Lucy snapped, "forget it! Just get out of here before I do something I'll regret."

Lincoln frowned. After a moment, he held his wrist out to her. Lucy looked back at her brother with widened eyes, though Lincoln couldn't see them beneath her bangs.

"Lincoln…" Lucy asked, stunned, "you… you believe me?"

"Not really, no," Lincoln chuckled, "but I believe that _you_ believe you need blood to survive. If that's what you think you need, then I'll help."

"Lincoln, this isn't going to be a onetime thing, you know," Lucy's fingers shook as they wrapped around Lincoln's arm, "I-I _need_ to feed."

"If that's what you need to help you," Lincoln laughed nervously.

"You're terrified of the sight of your own blood, Lincoln," Lucy pushed his arm away from her, "I can't do this to you."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Lincoln exhaled quickly, "Um, I mean… Look, Lucy, if you _really_ think you're a vampire and _really_ think you need to drink blood, then as your older brother I'll… let you, um, feed."

Saying it aloud, it did sound ridiculous.

"Ok," Lucy gulped, "I can't promise it won't hurt. I've never tried this before except on rats."

"Wait, rats?" Lincoln asked too late.

There was a strange pinch as Lucy bit into his exposed wrist, and then numbness. Lincoln opened his eyes, not realizing he'd shut them. His sisters had bitten him before, either intentionally or on accident in various fights through the years, and not once had a bite from a human ever been so… painless. He did feel a little fainter, though, and he could hear Lucy gulping liquid. Soon he became lightheaded, his vision fading in and out.

"L-Lucy…" he mumbled, drunkenly, "Stop!"

"Oh, Lincoln!" Lucy gasped, removing her mouth from his wrist, "I'm so sorry! I-I just lost control!"

"It's fine," Lincoln felt his head spinning. He looked at his wrist, eyes widening at the two pinprick marks forming little droplets of blood. That wasn't what a human bitemark looked like. The realization made him want faint.

"Lincoln!" Lucy shook her brother, panic creeping into her voice, "Lincoln!"

"Wha-?" Lincoln woke up, still in the air ducts, "Lucy?"

Suddenly, he jumped away from her, eyes widening in fear.

"You're a vampire!" he exclaimed.

"Duh," Lucy sighed, "I already told you that."

"Right…" Lincoln laughed, mirthlessly, "Well, I wasn't going to just _believe_ that. It's crazy!"

"I can't say I blame you," Lucy said, " _I_ have a hard time believing it."

"How did this happen?" Lincoln asked, "You can only turn into a vampire if another vampire bites you, right?"

"I found an internet chat group for vampires," Lucy shrugged, "I didn't put much stock into it – after all, it doesn't sound real – but I figured I'd meet up with one of them who lived nearby and was my age."

"That sounds like a cradle-robber trap if I've ever heard one…" Lincoln muttered.

"He was a vampire and I asked him to turn me into one," Lucy explained, "It was my dream come true, just as you said, but… Things haven't worked out like I thought they would."

"What do you mean?" Lincoln asked, his dizziness finally abating.

"It physically hurts to go outside during daytime, and even inside I feel awful," Lucy began, "I'm always hungry and thirsty, but no food or drink makes me feel any better – only human blood. I can't focus on anything but people's heartbeats, and it's driving me insane. I don't want to hurt people, Lincoln."

"You won't have to, Lucy," Lincoln wrapped his arms around her, "As long as I'm your brother, you can feed off of me."

"Lincoln, I couldn't!" Lucy said, "You're terrified of blood loss, and this one feeding made you dizzy. I could kill you."

"You said you've gone nearly a week without feeding, right?" Lincoln asked, "Well, could you hold off for… eight weeks?"

"Why eight weeks?" Lucy asked.

"I learned in class that that's how long it takes the human body to recover from blood loss." Lincoln explained.

"I don't know, Lincoln…" Lucy sighed, "that's a long time. I felt awful after a week without blood. I don't know if I could survive eight weeks. But… I know you won't survive long unless I give you time to recover, so I'll do my best."

"If worse comes to worst, you can feed off of me sooner and we can think up another plan." Lincoln said, "Trust me."

Lucy hugged Lincoln, suddenly, trying and failing to hold back tears.

"I can't thank you enough, Lincoln!" she sobbed.

"Hey now, let's not get mushy," Lincoln chuckled, nervously, "I'm only doing what any brother would do."

"No, Lincoln. You're doing way more than what a brother would do." Lucy smiled for the first time in a long time, "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me, Lucy," Lincoln returned the smile, "I'd do anything to save your life. No matter the cost."

"I love you," Lucy said, drying her eyes again.

"Hey now, what'd I say about mushy?" Lincoln grinned, "C'mon, let's get you back to your room."

And with that, the children left the safety of the air vent to face the world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Getting a lot of reviews from people to continue this, so… Yeah. Small warning: this, and subsequent chapters, are a little more lighthearted than the first one. It's not so much hurt/comfort anymore. There's also a few Loudcest** ** _jokes_** **– they are not canon in the fic, just slips of the tongue. Still, if a few jokes are too much for your delicate sensitivities, you have been forewarned.**

Lynn woke up, feeling the usual throb in her wrist and the tired sensation that came with her time on the schedule. Groaning, she prepared for the day. Even her morning coffee didn't make her feel any better, and her older sisters eyed her with sympathy. Luna rubbed her own wrist at the memory of drained sensation. They all hated the process, but not one of them would stop lest their sister died.

Lynn rolled her shoulders, trying to get her blood going. She had been the second Loud child introduced to _the feeding_. Since then, all of Lucy's older siblings had agreed to feed her in rotation to spare her a soulless death, and to spare their fellow siblings from blood loss. Lucy, for her part, only took what she needed when she needed it. The balancing act wasn't good for anyone, though; Lucy was never fully-satisfied, and the pain and hunger never subsided, while her siblings could never fully recover before the next feeding. They were all weak and miserable, but none of them wanted to stop because then Lucy would die.

 _Really_ die.

Lynn shuddered at the thought of what it would be like to have the room all to herself. She'd always dreamed of it, secretly, yearning for that extra space, but to be presented with it at the cost of her best friend's life? The jock could never live with that. Nothing was worth that price. Turning her eyes towards her fellow conspirators, she saw the same resolve in them. Even Luan was seriously committed to the cause of keeping the young goth alive – well, undead anyway. Still, they dreamed of a better solution than this…

Lincoln joined them, too, him and Leni having taken to coffee in the wake of the feedings.

"This really sucks," Luan yawned, "and no, that wasn't a joke."

"You've already used that one every other day, anyway," Luna muttered into her coffee, trying to fight back her aggression.

"There, like, has to be a better a solution than this," Leni pouted, "Lincy, you're the only one besides Lucy who knows about this kind of stuff! Do you have any ideas?"

"You'd totally be a life saver, bro," Lori noted, "literally."

With all of his older sisters looking at him, Lincoln wiped the sleep from his eyes. Even freshly showered and dressed, he looked awful. Despite that, he smiled.

"I think I've found the solution," he said.

His sisters swarmed in around him. Lincoln was disheartened by the change in sensation from a few weeks earlier. Whenever his sisters used to swarm him, he'd be overwhelmed by the warmth of so many bodies, but now they were lukewarm, at best. The draining of blood had reduced their combined temperature, and the mere absence of heat gave Lincoln a chill. How much longer until they died? They wouldn't dare bring their parents or the younger siblings into it, but there weren't enough involved to satisfy Lucy's appetite _or_ keep the cattle from dying.

Did Lincoln just refer to him and his sisters as cattle?

"So, what's the game plan?" Lynn asked, almost as sickly as Lincoln since she had been fed on for nearly as long, "My batting average has plummeted since this began. I won't get into the Big Leagues at this rate."

"There's not a lot of reliable information out there, since this isn't a scientifically-proven thing," Lincoln confessed, "but I got an idea while researching them. Who would know how to cure vampirism better than a vampire?"

"Lucy doesn't know," Leni pointed out.

"No, she doesn't," Lincoln agreed, "but the vampire who turned her might."

The older sisters grinned at each other. Finally, they were getting somewhere.

"But…" Luna frowned, "we don't know who turned her."

"Lucy didn't know him," Lori scoffed, "he can shapeshift and use any name he wants; he can literally be anybody."

"Vampires have a connection to the ones who turned them, though," Lincoln pointed out, "We could use Lucy to track him."

"Then what?" Luan asked, "What if he doesn't tell us? What if he tries to kill us? There's a lot that could go wrong."

"Plus, aren't vampires supposed to be super-loyal to their masters?" Leni pointed out, "Lucy might, like, turn on us without meaning to."

"We need a better plan," Lynn grunted.

Lincoln tapped his chin before snapping his fingers.

"Lucy said she found this guy on an internet chatroom," he explained, "If we use another girl, like Lucy, we can probably trap him."

"We don't know what she said to get his attention, though," Lori groaned, "and Leni already pointed out that she might betray us, even if she doesn't want to."

"We don't even know where to find this chatroom," Luna added.

"Leave that to me," Lynn grinned, "I know Lucy better than anyone, and that includes all her passwords and usernames. If she's been somewhere online, I can find it _and_ her chat history."

"So, that only leaves finding a girl similar to Lucy," Lori tsked.

"Haiku!" Lincoln grinned.

"This isn't really the time for poetry, bro," Luna pointed out.

"No, she's a girl about my age and one of Lucy's friends," Lincoln explained, "She was one of my dates to the dance."

"You and Giggles would have been cuter," Luan muttered into her cup.

"Not as cute as him and Tabby," Luna shot back, just as quietly into her own cup.

"Frankly, I'm surprised you and Polly Pain didn't get along better," Lynn shrugged, "I thought you'd love a girl who could be rough."

"Slamming me into walls isn't really my thing," Lincoln said, "and we're getting off-track."

"Right, killing this vampire," Lynn shook her head clear. God, she was tired.

"Hold on, we probably don't need to kill him," Luan said.

"You kill them to cure their victims, right?" Lynn asked.

"I think that's werewolves," Luna pointed out.

" _Anyway_ ," Lincoln said, regaining their attention, "I'll try and get a hold of Haiku. Lynn, find out the chatroom and _exactly_ what Lucy said to get this guy's attention. I have a feeling this'll work."

"We should prepare to kill this guy, just in case," Lori said, taking Lynn's side, "Now… how can you kill something that's literally already dead?"

"Wooden stake through the heart, decapitate it, burn the body _and_ the head, spread the ashes at a crossroads, then sprinkle the remains with holy water," Lynn said in a near-monotone, still exhausted. At the surprised looks from her siblings, she shrugged again. "If you spend enough time with Lucy, you tend to learn _some_ things."

"Well, it beats my idea," Lincoln said, "Silver bullets blessed by a priest with holy water."

"We could use garlic," Leni suggested.

"How do we know any of this would work, anyway?" Lori asked, "Sunlight is, like, supposed to kill vampires, right? But it only _hurts_ Lucy. Literally any of what we try could be wrong!"

"We'll have to take the chance," Lincoln slammed a fist into his palm, "Come on, girls! Let's get ready to save Lucy!"

…

"Let me get this straight," Haiku said in her monotone, having looked up from her black coffee to regard her ex-date to the dance, "Lucy has been turned into a vampire by an anonymous young man over an internet chatroom?"

"That's correct," Lincoln said, all seriousness.

"That sounds like a cradle-robber trap…"

"That's what I said!"

"Alright, say I believe you," Haiku continued, "You want me to throw myself into danger and risk being turned into the living dead by a stranger over the internet who preys on young, innocent girls? On top of that risk, you want me to take the additional risk that I will be discovered and killed – or worse – by a potential sociopath and/or superpowered, unholy entity with a craving for flesh and blood, and likely a brood of similar creatures and followers?"

Lincoln stayed silent, breaking into a sweat as he realized how ridiculous he was looking.

"I'm not sure whether I should be more worried that you're crazy," Haiku sighed, "or that you're willing to throw an eleven-year-old girl under the bus, like that."

"Well, we just want to find this guy so we can ask him how to cure vampirism," Lincoln sighed, knowing he'd lost the argument, "I don't suppose you'd know?"

"I've certainly heard of a lot of ways," Haiku admitted, "but I can't be sure which one would work. Most of them can be quite painful to the undead, if I'm not mistaken."

"Can you give me some ideas?"

"That depends entirely on the mechanics of it," Haiku smiled, coyly, "If it's a spiritual ailment, I'm unsure. If it's a bloodborne disease, then logically there should be a way to purge it. If it's something supernatural, then any number of fairytale remedies could work. Do you know the source?"

"A random guy on the internet?" Lincoln guessed.

"Isn't your younger sister supposed to be a genius, or something?" Haiku frowned, "Why not have her do some sort of analysis to determine the source? Why drag me into it?"

"We didn't want to drag any of our younger siblings into this," Lincoln confessed, "That is a good idea, though. If Lucy's disease is anything biological, Lisa should be able to find a cure."

"There you go," Haiku gave that somewhat sarcastic smile again, "and now you won't have to sacrifice an innocent girl in the bargain."

"Alright, alright, I get it," Lincoln chuckled, "This was a bad idea. You don't believe me, anyway, do you?"

"Anything is possible, I suppose," Haiku shrugged, "I hope your journey brings Lucy some measure of closure, whatever ails her. I'd hate to see my friend suffer."

"Thank you, Haiku," Lincoln grinned, getting up to leave, "You're a life-saver!"

…

"I was wondering how long you would wait before you brought this to my attention," Lisa sighed as she scanned Lucy. The other sisters involved in the growing fiasco avoided eye contact.

"You knew?" Lincoln asked.

"It wasn't hard to determine a health problem was occurring," Lisa confessed, "Lucy was acting quite strange, then Lincoln began showing symptoms of blood loss and fatigue. Then all of you showed the symptoms, yet none of you came to me or complained to our parents. Combined with the very obvious fang marks in your arms, I had some suspicions. Of course, due to how all of you feel about my experiments on you, I thought it best to wait for you to come to me – which you were 98.928% likely to do within the next few days."

"So, what's the diagnosis?" Luna asked as she watched Lisa struggle to extract a vial of blood from Lucy's unmoving veins. It looked more like black sludge at this point…

"That I cannot determine so soon," Lisa said, "It will take time to perform these tests. I would say about a week or two."

Her siblings groaned, collectively.

"If only you had some synthetic blood to feed her," Lori sighed, "that would totally make our lives easier."

"Funny that you should mention that," Lisa smirked, "I do have some, but it won't be palatable for Lucy. However, I have a storeroom filled with blood standing by."

"I hesitate to ask," Lincoln was the first to speak, "but why?"

"A variety of purposes," Lisa explained as she collected skin, nail, and hair samples from the goth, "I like to keep up-to-date samples of each of your blood to monitor any changes as a result of my experiments, just in case. I also keep a large quantity of spare blood for medical purposes, in case any of you need a transfusion. Then there's the blood I use for gene-manipulation experiments."

"Blood, blood, gallons of the stuff," Luna sang under her breath.

"Quite," Lisa fixed her glasses after all the samples were placed into her various machines, "I would like to keep Lucy here for observation. Never fear, sisters and brother – I will keep her well-fed."

"Will cold blood really work, though?" Lucy asked.

"If it doesn't I can easily heat it up to body temperature," Lisa assured her, "and if that doesn't work, I can undergo a transfusion while you feed on me, to keep myself balanced."

"It'll probably be the best meal I've had in weeks," Lucy blushed as she looked at her other siblings, "Um… no offense."

"Hey, being a meal is the one thing I _don't_ want to win at," Lynn smirked, tiredly.

"Like, which one of us _did_ taste better, though?" Leni asked. Her siblings eyed her, askance, but Lucy answered anyway.

"Lincoln," Lucy said, "Nothing beats your first time."

Lincoln felt the glares of his older sisters at the suggestive wording. Why did Lucy have to phrase it like that?! Then again, she was only eight years old; she probably had no idea what those words conveyed.

"The tests should be done before the week is over – a week, at most," Lisa said, "I suggest each of you gets some rest, and drink plenty of fluids."

"Alright, _mom_ ," Luan snorted, "Let's go, guys. I'm feeling pretty _drained_. Get it?"

Her fellow cattle groaned as they shuffled out of Lisa's room. As soon as the door closed, Lisa held a hand to her head, feeling a slight throbbing. Strange.

"I have to ask, Lucy," the scientist shook her head clear of the pain, "I'm surprised you'd be willing to cure yourself. Hasn't it always been your dream to be a vampire? Are you not blessed with a plethora of skills and inhuman powers?"

"Immortality has its price," Lucy sighed, "and they aren't prices I like to pay."

"Fair enough," Lisa shrugged, watching the data produced by her testing. She felt the throbbing in her skull again, like a pressure behind her eyes. She removed her glasses to rub her sockets.

"Problem?" Lucy asked. Her voice sounded like it was moving.

"Just a migraine," Lisa explained, "Strange. None of my meteorological readings predicted a pressure change. I keep myself well-hydrated, too."

"There are other causes for migraines," Lucy said, her voice closer, "You're probably under a lot of stress right now."

Lisa nodded agreement, turning to face Lucy. Rather than standing right behind her, the young goth was still sitting on the gurney she'd been on since she'd arrived. Lisa added auditory hallucinations to her mental list of symptoms. Perhaps she was sick? No matter; she had a job to do it.

Lucy's life depended on it.

…

"Master," the young girl kneeled as she entered the lair, "my love…"

"Rise, my dear," her master said, smirking at her pet-like obedience, "You are of a higher standing than most of these dregs; the floor does not suit you."

He gestured around the cleared-out portion of the sewers their coven called home. Only a handful of their cousins held onto their minds, and all of these were the children freshly-recruited over the last few months. The others were adults, possibly as old or older than the master that now dominated them. They were all half- or fully-mad from their hunger and thirst, having lost their humanity in degrees and become little better than beasts. Of the half-mad, some were people the young girl had recognized from Royal Oaks, either as crazed homeless men and women, or overly-aggressive members of the working class. One was a well-established business owner, but he held onto his sanity by a gossamer thread.

"Remove your hood for me, please," their master cooed, "It's such a shame to see such a beautiful face obscured."

The girl obeyed, almost too quickly, and pulled her hood down. Pale flesh and glossy-black hair was exposed. A love-struck, small smile tugged at her lips as she stared at her master with half-lidded, hazed eyes. Of all the children coerced to his control, she had been the easiest to turn and control. That came as no surprise, however, since she had been in contact with – and pining after – the master vampire for years.

"Haiku," the master breathed, huskily, "A name befitting such a work of beauty, to be sure."

Haiku felt her dead heart stir at the words, but she couldn't allow herself to be distracted.

"Master," she managed with difficulty, "Lucy's family is trying to cure her. They wanted to track you down, to ask you if there was a cure."

" _Cure_?" the master asked with a snarl, "As if this blessing is some sort of common disease? The insolence of the petulant mortals."

He regained his composure as his anger roused the more bestial members of their coven into violence. Haiku and the other children were still new to the fold; despite their awakening, they were still squeamish and unwilling to hunt and feed, and grimaced at the beauteous piles of gore and bone that were accumulating within the sewers. Such was the problem with turning children and teenagers; they always wanted to be vampires, but they never wanted to embrace it. Not every child could be as he was.

But they could learn.

"If there is a…" Haiku tried to find a word to replace 'cure', but failed, "If there is one, then shouldn't we tell them?"

"And rob Lucy of her lifelong dream?" the master raised his eyebrows, hurt.

"They wouldn't try to cure her if she didn't want to be," Haiku shifted under the master's gaze.

"Again, with that word," the master tsked, approaching Haiku with a threatening gait, "There are ways to _remove_ the gift, but they require sacrifices. How is it that you know our young Lucy wants this? Has she come to you?"

"N-no," Haiku flinched back as the master's psychic power washed over her. It was like being buried beneath waves of cold fire, beating her into submission with chilling fear.

"It is likely, then, to assume her family has been lying to you," the master stroked her cheek, the fires of his psychic rage turning into seductive tendrils that stoked her love, "They want to kill me. They want to rob _all_ of us of these gifts."

"Th-they can't!" Haiku gasped as her master retreated from her, both physically and psychically.

"No, they can't," he said with iron in his voice, "I will act through Lucy and show her the way to her salvation."

"Can I help?" Haiku asked, desperate to return to his side.

"My dear, you will not want to see this," the master smiled, coldly, "It is a necessary evil, I assure you, and Lucy will be the better for it, but it is not easy to watch. Not for a neophyte, such as you, anyway."

Haiku was hesitant to leave.

"Leave us," the master snapped, his patience for ignorant children coming to an end, "Or do you require the same lessons as Lucy?"

Haiku paled more than she usually was, bowing her way out of the lair. As she turned and exited, she could hear the echoing laughter of the cannibal court as they ripped into fresh meat.

 **Oh, wow, I developed a plot. Remember how Haiku had a crush on a 200-year-old vampire boy? Well, guess who the villain is.**


	3. Chapter 3

**WARNING: Character deaths imminent! Seriously, though, stop reading if you actually like characters. This will be painful; no holds barred.**

 **Grimdark intensifies.**

Lucy clutched the gurney in distress. Talon-like nails ripped into its padded mat. The stainless steel creaked and began to bend beneath the stress of her grip. Her master beckoned. All she could hear, day in and day out, were the heartbeats of her family members throughout the house, and the constant commands of her master.

Commands she dared not follow.

Commands she was powerless to resist.

Lisa had been by her side almost every hour of every day, observing her and keeping her company. The child prodigy was almost as tireless as Lucy, only catching a few hours of sleep each day through catnaps. She was completely dedicated to curing her older sister, doing her best to save her.

 _Save you?_

The voice dripped with sarcasm and Lucy wondered if it was hers or her master's. The two voices seemed inseparable.

 _She's keeping you in a cage._

Lucy felt the metal of the gurney bend in her inhuman grip. She stood and approached Lisa, who was too absorbed in her data-scrying to notice. Lucy felt her lips peel back in a snarl, her extended canines slipping free as she opened her mouth. Silent as the grave, she approached her younger sister.

Lisa felt the presence and looked over her shoulder.

 _Too late,_ Lucy thought.

…

Lynn stared at the empty bed across from her own. The clock on their desk said it was 3:00AM, but the young jock couldn't sleep. Sighing in frustration, she got up to head to the kitchen. Perhaps a snack would help her? As she approached the stairs, she noticed Lisa and Lily's door open. Looking at the other doors, she noticed Lincoln's was, too. She shrugged, mind set on fixing a sandwich. Perhaps Lincoln couldn't sleep either, so he decided to approach Lisa for some sleep aid. Each of the siblings had gone to their genius sister for _some_ kind of drug at some point or another – purely for health reasons, of course.

Reaching the kitchen and fixing her sandwich, Lynn tapped a foot while she enjoyed the disgusting "protein hoagie" she had created. She could care less what people thought about banana, raw egg, and red meat existing on the same bread – it put the proverbial hair on the chest. Halfway through her snack, though, she heard a loud bang from upstairs, followed by a scuffle, then silence. Worried, she put the sandwich on the counter and ran upstairs.

Lincoln was outside of his room, clutching his neck with one hand while trying desperately to get out from under Lucy. Lynn gasped, drawing the attention of both siblings. Lincoln was pale – paler than Lucy had ever been – and weak, his eyes almost glossed-over from blood loss. Lucy's face, once hidden by her black hair, stared at her in a snarl, fangs protruding from her lips. The amount of blood running down Lucy's face – fresh, living blood – gave the jock pause. Lucy's black clothing, her hands… she was drenched in the vitae. Too much to only be Lincoln's.

Lynn's eyes drifted towards Lisa and Lily's open door, horrified.

"Lucy," the jock whispered, "what have you done?"

"What needed to be done," Lucy snarled, picking up the weakened Lincoln and sinking her fangs into his neck to finish the job.

"No!" Lynn sprinted forward and shoulder-barged the vampire with all her strength.

Even with all the effort, and the surprise of the movement, it was only enough to make Lucy grunt and toss Lincoln aside, as easily as a child tossing a ragdoll. The goth sneered as she met Lynn's strength with her own. Lynn was easily the strongest of the Loud siblings. Even with her energy drained by Lucy's feeding, she could still bench-press 125lbs and run a mile in 10 minutes. Despite that, she was powerless against Lucy's unholy strength and speed. Every punch, every grapple, was countered and broken by the smaller Loud sibling.

"Not used to being the weak one, Lynn?" Lucy asked, uncharacteristically venomous. She prepared to bite into Lynn's exposed neck.

Suddenly, to the surprise of everyone, Lucy's head was slammed back with the force of an electric guitar shattering against her face. The loud sound reminded the semi-delirious Lincoln of the old character El Kabong from those kid's shows. Lucy immediately recovered, prepare to strike out against the sudden appearance of Luna and Luan, but the other sisters were already emerging from their rooms, various improvised weapons held in their hands.

Cornered, Lucy gave an inhuman hiss before throwing Lynn at Luna and Luan with enough force to send them tumbling back into their room. Lori and Leni tried to tackle the goth, but she jumped over their heads, latching onto the ceiling, and crawled away like a spider. She disappeared into the bathroom, the sound of glass breaking signaling her escape. The twins only gaped in terror, while their older sisters recovered.

"Lincoln!" Lynn ran over to their brother's side. He was too cold, and barely conscious, "We have to get him to-" she stopped and spared a look at Lisa's open door.

"What's wrong?" Lori asked, helping Leni up. At Lynn's weak pointing towards the door, Lori immediately understood. Steeling herself, she took charge. "Leni, keep the twins in their room. Luan, wake up our parents. Luna, call the hospital. No one go into that room until I come out, no matter what you hear."

Immediately her sisters protested, but Lori was put in charge for a reason. She stamped her foot down and browbeat them into obeying her.

"Just do it!" she snapped. Turning towards the door, she gulped. Why was it so quiet in there? Lily should have woken up by now…

The remaining Loud siblings got to work, each sneaking looks as Lori closed and locked the door behind her. Almost immediately, they heard her scream in distress, followed by horrified sobbing, but they respected Lori too much to disobey her during a moment of crisis. Besides, they were all old enough to understand the implication. Lynn cradled Lincoln's head in her lap, sobbing. Luna called the hospital, trying to fight back the urge to vomit. Leni shushed the traumatized twins in the safety of their room; even she understood what the scream had meant. Luan woke her parents up, unnaturally somber, from their deep sleep.

Within the hour, the Loud children watched the circus unfold. The ambulance took Lincoln away, their mother riding along with him, almost crazed with grief. Their father stayed with them, his face frozen and devoid of emotion as he clung onto a traumatized Lori, as much to comfort her as himself. The twins were being kept distracted by Leni and some police officers tasked with making the news easier. The remaining Loud siblings were questioned one-by-one, and each knew not to tell the truth – who would believe them about a vampire?

While Luna tried to hold back sobs and explain her own version of the story, Lynn looked at Luan. The comedian stared, forlornly, into the cup of coffee she had been given, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders in an effort at comfort. The officers had already quit trying to tell them things would get better. Lynn watched as the crime scene specialists finished their gruesome work, wheeling out two gurneys with body bags. Small body bags.

Lynn had taken a peek in the room after Lori had exited, against her wishes. She wished she hadn't. There wasn't much left of either of their youngest siblings. Lynn could barely imagine how much effort it had taken to find all the remains and gather them into the bags. Lynn was no longer sickened by it; merely stunned.

"How could she do it?" Luan asked, suddenly, snapping Lynn out of her reverie, "How could Lucy even… manage something like this?"

"She couldn't," Lynn shook her head, unable to believe her closest sister was capable of willingly slaughtering their siblings – of slaughtering an infant! Tears welled up at the memory of sweet, innocent Lily. No, she couldn't let herself fall apart. "She must have been controlled. Remember who the real enemy is – Lucy's a victim."

"A _victim_?!" Luan snapped, throwing her coffee onto the ground as she stood and rounded on the jock, "Lynn, Lucy _murdered_ Lisa and Lily! She _butchered_ them! She's an animal, and she needs to be put down like one!"

"Calm down, Luan," Luna returned from her interrogation just in time, standing between the two enraged teens, "We've just been through something unnatural and traumatic. Luan, you need to remember that Lucy would never have done these things in her right mind; she's sick, and she needs our help." Luan simmered, but didn't say anything, so Luna turned to Lynn. "Lynn, you have to start considering the possibility that… that we can't save Lucy. That _this_ is what she is, now."

"I won't!" Lynn growled, "We can cure Lucy, I know it!"

"Too little," Luan muttered, walking away, "too late."

Luna felt her heart break again. Their family was falling apart. Thinking those words forced her to look at the grisly aftermath of Lucy's attack. Some of the family were falling apart in all-too-literal ways that made the rocker shudder. Already the police had intercepted the comedian and were asking her additional questions.

"Would she even mind being killed?" Luna asked herself.

"What?" Lynn gaped. Luna cursed herself for saying the thought aloud.

"I mean, if she had been forced to do it," she rubbed the back of her head, "if she had to go on living with the knowledge that her sisters died by her own hands, and she couldn't stop it… Well, could you live with yourself? I don't think I could…"

Lynn wanted to retort, but nothing came to mind. Her throat was clenched shut with emotion, anyway. She needed to save Lucy; she couldn't stand the thought of losing another sister! Luan ran back to them, panic written on her face. Before either Lynn or Luna could speak, the comedian was already sputtering.

"The police found my tapes!" she explained, hurriedly, "They're taking tonight's footage to verify our stories!"

Luna let out a string of very colorful words that gave even Lynn pause.

"They'll know we lied!" Luna hissed, "Worse, they'll know Lucy killed our sisters, not the creep we came up with!"

"They'll see her powers, though," Lynn interjected, "They'll believe the truth, now! Maybe they can help us."

"Fat chance," Luan huffed, "If they know anything about vampires, they've been keeping it secret – they'll probably hunt her down. If they don't know anything, then they'll probably try and capture her for experiments, or something."

"That's not funny, Luan," Lynn seethed, still angry at her older sister.

"Who says I'm joking?" Luan sneered, not over her own anger.

"Listen you two," Luna interjected, "we can't start attacking each other now. We need to work together. We're a family, and family takes care of family. _That's_ how it is."

Lynn and Luan sulked, but at least they weren't attacking each other anymore. Luna led them to the rest of the family, who had gathered near the curb. Dawn was coming and their neighbors were watching the spectacle. It sickened the Louds, but would they have done any different in their shoes?

"I've asked the McBrides if they could let us stay with them for a while," their father said, hollowly, "I couldn't think of very many alternatives. Get in the van, kids."

"Shouldn't we pack our bags?" Lola asked, uncharacteristically weak. It was clear from the twins' red eyes that they had been informed of the tragedy.

"We can't, sweetie," Lynn Sr. forced a smile as he knelt beside his daughter. Now his youngest, he realized, almost driving him to tears again. "We're not allowed back inside, yet, but the nice officers will send us everything we need when they're done investigating it."

"When can we come back?" Lana asked.

"Hopefully never," Luan muttered, unwilling to return to the house. None of the others would say it, but they agreed with the sentiment. How could you keep living in a house where your loved ones were slaughtered? The twins almost seemed relieved at that.

"Come, children," their father forced some warmth into his voice, "Let's go meet the McBrides. Your mother and brother will be joining us, shortly."

…

Haiku had answered the master's call. The other children he had turned were with her, awaiting his proclamation. They were all outcasts enamored with the dark, easily drawn into the vampire culture. Several members of the Morticians Club were present, as were both the young boys Lucy was interested in. Maggie still rubbed at her neck, not over the shock that vampires were real, and standing amongst several of her friends. It was almost insulting that the master had targeted their demographic exclusively. Then again, would any child outside of their click probably wouldn't have gone into a vampire chatroom in the first place.

"What do you think he wants?" Rocky Spokes asked Haiku, "His command was very vague."

"He wants to show us something, obviously," Silas said with a sigh and a hair flip.

Rocky glared at him. Neither of them would admit it, probably due to their age, but they both were in an unspoken competition for Lucy's attentions. It was no secret she had a crush on both of them. The boys had been instant rivals when they noticed how much time Lucy spent with the other, even though neither of them seemed to show a direct interest in the goth girl.

"Doi," Rocky scoffed, "but _what_ does he want to show us?"

"The question on everyone's minds, I sense," the master's voice echoed around the chamber, drawing the attention of all his beastly subordinates and new recruits. Every member of his coven looked up, entranced by his charismatic presence. He was beautiful – painfully so. "Ah, here she comes."

One-by-one, eyes drifted from their master towards the tunnel entrance. Gasps escaped from hoarse throats as a young girl trudged in. Even in the near-darkness of the poorly-lit sewers, the vampires' enhanced eyesight could see her drenched in blood, tears streaking her face. Every step was an effort that she resisted – she had no desire to enter this Hell! The vampires – new and old – parted before her approach like water before a ship. With obvious hate in her eyes, she was painfully forced to kneel by invisible hands, her knees sinking into old gore. The brownish stains on her stockings were coated with fresh, red ones.

Most of her fellow goths recognized her and wore mixed expressions of horror and surprise. They had never seen her in the coven, before, so they figured she had somehow missed the recruiting. None of them had fully fed, so seeing one of their fellow recruits drenched in gore was an unsettling reminder of the lifestyle they had chosen.

"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy," the master tsked, forcing the girl to look at him with his psychic powers, "Did you enjoy your feast?"

Lucy had a _very_ short response, but it made her fellow neophytes flinch. The master's eye twitched as his smile grew taut.

"You wanted this, girl," he growled through the forced smile, "Your personal attachment to your cattle is a weakness. You would outlive them, anyway."

"They were my sisters…" Lucy sobbed. Haiku and her other friends made to approach her, but the glare from their master stopped them. "They didn't deserve that."

"Vampires are superior to mortals," the master raised his voice so all could hear, "Do not be blinded by weakness! Your attachments to your family will only destroy you! You must break these bonds, as Lucy did! You must show that your loyalty to me outweighs that to your families."

Haiku exchanged horrified glances with her fellow neophytes. What had the master forced Lucy to do? It was obvious, of course, by what he said, but the idea was too horrible for them to accept. Haiku couldn't believe her beautiful, perfect master would force any of them to… No, it was simply impossible.

"You want us to kill our families?" Rocky asked, outraged.

"Only if you are foolish enough to let them intervene," the master sneered, "as Lucy has. You should rule your cattle without them knowing, without them thinking for themselves. Lucy didn't enthrall them as her willing servants, nor did she feed on them in secret – and their deaths are on her head for not assuring their loyalty."

Despite his reasoning, and the charisma he exhumed, despite the subtle psychic manipulation easing his recruits' minds, none of them was entirely convinced. Sure, Lucy had been the only one to involve her family, but even that didn't warrant their deaths. Haiku had enthralled her parents; Rocky snuck out and fed on the homeless; Silas fed on his family, in secret. None of them had taken enough blood to kill, despite the desire to do so. The master's psychic commands were slowly shaping them to his way of thinking, though. It seemed reasonable that Lucy should kill her family, if she would not control them…

Haiku stared at Lucy, her heart going out to her good friend. She suddenly felt guilty. Wasn't it her efforts that had driven the master to recruiting children? Haiku felt a chill at the realization her master – her unrequited crush for so many years – wasn't who he had seemed. Sensing her sudden suspicion, she felt his gaze turn on her. A powerful psychic attack drove her to her knees, a mixture of pain, fear, and love that tore at her psyche. She couldn't leave him. He was incapable of doing wrong!

"Forgive me, my love," Haiku sobbed. Lucy spared a pitying look that cut deeper than any of the master's attacks ever could.

The other recruits looked disgusted, but didn't dare speak up. Obeying the master was no longer the surest way to avoid personal punishment; it was now the only way to protect their families.

…

It was obvious none of the children were going to school so soon after the tragedy. Even Clyde, upon hearing of what happened, was too hurt to attend. He was practically a second brother to the Loud siblings, and the news of Lily and Lisa's deaths hurt him as sure as it hurt them. Just as painful, his closest friend had been hospitalized.

Howard and Harold were talking to Lynn Sr., taking him aside to discuss the living arrangements. Despite how much they wanted to help the Louds, the McBride house simply wasn't large enough to keep the guests indefinitely. Lynn Sr. understood, of course, and thanked them for however long they could help them. He took the oldest four Louds aside and asked them if they could stay with anyone else for a time, until he found a new house.

"I know we should stay together at a time like this," he said, "but not everyone has a house large enough to hold so many people. They certainly can't afford the resources."

"I think I can stay with a friend," Luna nodded, reluctantly.

"If only Bobby were still here," Lori sniffed, "I could really use him, right now. I guess I could stay with my friends."

"Me, too," Leni sighed, drained by her efforts to keep the twins from collapsing into depression.

"My only close friend is Benny," Luan admitted, "I don't think you want me staying with a boy…"

"I don't want you girls leaving at all," Lynn Sr. said, "but the fewer people staying here, the more time I'll have to find a new place to stay. If we're not struggling to keep a roof over our heads, I'll be able to find a new place, sooner, which means we can all be back together."

"I could ask Giggles, but here mom might not want an older kid hanging around," Luan suggested, "It'd probably be easier than convincing Benny's parents to let me stay with him, though."

"You girls won't be away long," their dad assured them, "I'll get this sorted out. We'll find the man who did this to our family; we'll get Lucy back."

His daughters couldn't look him in the eye, couldn't even face him, as he walked away. They had to lie to him, of course. How could you convince your parents that your sister murdered and butchered your youngest siblings? How could you tell them she was a vampire? They'd never believe it, take it as some cruel joke, and likely lock you up in a psych ward. That didn't make lying to their parents any easier, especially when they deserved the truth.

"This will only be temporary," Lori said to her younger sisters, "Don't worry about the twins, Leni. Lynn will still be with them, and they love Clyde like a brother."

"We'll all be back together soon," Luan forced a chuckle, "Hey, when we go back to school, we'll all see each other, anyway."

"Yeah," Luna tried to smile, "Reunited, and it feels so good."

The sisters exchanged one last sad series of smiles before leaving to call their respective friends. Things would get better.

They couldn't get any worse.

 **Looking back on this… I** ** _may_** **have made it a little darker than it needed to. This is what happens when you guys keep pressing for more chapters! Couldn't be satisfied with the happy-ending one-shot I made, could you?**

 **):**


	4. Chapter 4

**People still read this? I killed a baby, guys.** ** _A baby_** **.**

 **At this point, Lynn is a good candidate for the new protagonist. I'm partial to her. I like tough girls :(**

Lincoln's eyes fluttered open. He felt… good? He was tired, and there was some pain, but otherwise he felt as if he were just waking up from a bad dream. He dared to think the half-forgotten memories were nightmares, dared to hope. As his eyes focused and he realized he was in a hospital, however, his heart sank. His mother was asleep in a chair near his bed. Despite having questions, he let her sleep.

The sun was already working its way up the sky by the time she came to. There were tears and joy at the sight of her only son, finally awake. She explained that he'd been unconscious for nearly a week. She avoided most of his questions about how Lucy and the others were, only telling him that the rest of the family would be there soon. Even Pop-pop would be coming down to visit later in the week. Lincoln waited, growing unnerved by his mother's almost erratic behavior and the lack of answers. Lunch came and they arrived.

"Lincoln!" they greeted, coming in small groups, and rushing to his bedside to hug him. Lynn Sr., Lynn, and the twins came with Clyde and the McBrides, while Luna, Luan, Leni, and Lori all came in separately, each with an additional friend he hardly recognized standing awkwardly by the door.

"Bro, it's so great to see you awake again!" Luna grinned broadly, tears streaking down her face. All of them were crying and smiling, almost desperate in their joy. It unnerved him even more.

"You had us worried, Linc," Lynn slugged him gently in the arm, smiling but no more dry-eyed than anyone else.

"I brought you some comics," Clyde offered. Lincoln took them, appreciatively.

They all greeted him, all embraced him, all showered him with praise. Well, all except the out-of-place friends of his sisters. And… Three were missing.

"Where are Lucy, Lisa, and Lily?" Lincoln asked, sitting up.

He felt his heartrate increase as everyone around him paled. Lori and Leni nearly broke down in sobs, while the friends at the door avoided eye contact, getting misty-eyed themselves. Luna's jaw was rigid, her look distant. Lynn chose to look out the window. The twins were despondent. Only Luan showed another emotion: anger. Everyone could hear his heart monitor increasing.

"Where are they?!" he demanded, knowing something was wrong. Had they killed Lucy? Had she taken Lisa and Lily? Were they all hospitalized, too?

"Linc," Luna sighed, being the only one with the strength to speak.

The words were too horrifying for him to properly process, but she didn't repeat herself. She waited for them to sink in, feeling her heart split anew as realization crossed her brother's face. He sunk into his bed, staring at the ceiling in disbelief.

"L-Lincoln?" Clyde approached his best friend. No response.

His family tried to get his attention. Their efforts became increasingly desperate, louder, more emotional. They pled him to respond, but he was in another place. His young mind couldn't process what was happening. It needed time to heal, to register reality, and it shut out the world around him to do so. Eventually, visiting hours ended and his friends and family reluctantly left. Lincoln drifted into a curiously dreamless sleep long after they had left, never once stirring.

…

"The doctors say he's beginning to speak and move again," Lynn Sr. explained, relieved, to his family a few days later, "They assume he had some kind of breakdown and needed to... cope."

"I don't blame him," Luan muttered. Had that been an attempt at a joke? It didn't feel funny, even to her. She hadn't made a proper joke since the incident; not even an improper one.

"He should be fit for release in another week," Rita added, somewhat enthused.

"I've found a house we can rent," Lynn Sr. smiled, "It's a little smaller than our old one."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Lynn noted, bitterly. Only her parents were surprised at the jock's remark; her sisters shared her acerbic view. Two fewer sisters meant more living space…

"We'll be moving in this weekend," Rita chose to ignore the darkness hanging over the family, "We'll try and cozy the place up, make it feel like home, for when your brother arrives. Sounds good, right?"

"Whatever," Lori said, playing with the straw of her cup. Even she had run out of emotion, recent events robbing her of her usual melodrama.

It had already been a month since the incident, a month since their family had been shattered and split up. Lori was staying with various friends, unable to stay in one house for long out of fear of growing too attached; the idea of loss clung to her and affected all her decisions, these days. Leni was little better, but she still seemed optimistic; she was genuinely pleased to be with her family again, actually smiling at the promise of living under one roof. Luna was staying with Sam, the closest friend of the same gender and age as her. There had been hesitation, on her part, out of fear that she would make a fool of herself and damage the tenuous romantic relationship she had been trying to build, but the rocker found herself caring less and less about romance, these days. Luan had managed to land a similar stay with her own crush, Benny, but his presence had little soothing effect on her. Despite the situation, being so close to their love interests _did_ soothe them, at least a little.

"The police wanted to talk to you girls one last time," Lynn Sr. added, almost as an afterthought, "Since they've gone over Luan's footage, they've had questions. They won't answer any of ours, though."

"They won't even show us a picture of the intruder," Rita added, bitterly.

The eldest daughters exchanged knowing looks. They had suspected the police would return to them at some point, and they were a little surprised that they were keeping a low profile about the situation. Not for the first time they felt awful for keeping the truth hidden from their parents.

"I'll take them by after lunch," Lori promised, "We need to have a sister powwow, anyway."

"I'm so proud of all of you," their father teared up. Even in his hard grin, they could see that paternal pride, and out of shame for their lies they avoided looking him in the eyes. "Even after everything, you're all staying so strong, going about your daily lives."

"What your father is trying to say is, none of you had to go back to school so soon," Rita said.

"There wasn't much else to do," Luan confessed with a sad grin and a shrug, "other than try and bed Benny."

The comment had been off-color enough to startle her mortified siblings, and even the comedian herself. So out-of-place, so poorly-timed… She snorted at the absurdity of it, and soon she giggled. Luna started laughing, and soon all of them were guffawing at something that, normally, wouldn't have made any of them laugh. Perhaps they were desperate to find something – anything – to laugh at. Either way, they were smiling again, if only for a moment. Their smiles faded slowly, but some of the darkness had been driven out.

"I couldn't stay away from training, anyway," Lynn kept a tenuous smile, "Being with the team… helps."

Luna nodded agreement; she missed her bandmates and didn't feel like moping in Sam's room forever. She could tell, looking at her other sisters, that they felt much the same. Avoiding school would have destroyed them completely. Only interaction and distraction kept them from brooding on what could no longer be helped.

They finished lunch and went their separate ways; the parents left with the twins, and the older kids went to the police station. They had no idea what awaited them, no clues. There was a gnawing fear that Lori and even Leni might be arrested for withholding information, being the eldest. The thought of their family being split up even more was heartrending, so they all kept quiet for the ride. Finally, they arrived. After a short wait, they were brought into a room as one, facing what they assumed was a detective.

"You five realize why you're here, correct?" the detective asked with no introduction or preamble.

"Because we lied about what happened?" Lori suggested, bluntly.

"No," the detective gave a gruff noise that might have been a laugh, "No one would have believed you; lying was your best bet. No, we called you in to confirm what my agency has already uncovered."

"Agency?" Luna asked, ever suspicious of _the Man_.

"What have you discovered?" Luan asked, not wanting to sound crazy just yet.

"Your sister, Lucy, is a vampire," the detective said, "and you've all been letting her feed off of you."

"Vampires," Lynn wasn't a very good liar, "aren't those just myths?"

"Don't play the fool, girls," the detective said, "They're real. You know it. My agency specializes in hunting them down and exterminating them."

"You can't!" Lynn shouted, "Lucy can be cured!"

"There is no cure for vampirism," the detective scoffed, "Believe me; countless men and women have tried. There's nothing that can be done, except putting them out of their misery. Your sister isn't herself anymore; she's a cannibal puppet for an immortal sadist."

The bluntness of the detective stunned all the Loud sisters. While they were stunned, the detective gave a brief history of vampires and hunting them in the U.S. – and the world as a whole. He made it abundantly clear that throughout the thousands of years of vampire-hunting, no cure had ever been found.

"Why are you telling us this?" Lori interrupted.

"I need you all to understand the severity of the situation," the detective explained, "You need to tell me everything you know. You can't help her, and I won't allow a bunch of children try and hunt down a coven of vampires. It won't end well. Even if you manage to catch her, I doubt any of you would kill her."

"We don't know anything," Leni said before her sisters had a chance to lie, "Lucy, like, never talked about it. All she said was she met the guy on a chatroom for vampires."

"Did she say which site?" the detective demanded. He growled in frustration as the girls shook their heads. "Anything else?" More head-shaking. "Alright, fine. Get out of here. I'm not going to tell you to forget what you heard; no one will believe you if you tell them, anyway."

The girls filed out, rudely dismissed. Their mood soured even further with the detective's revelations. Just as Luan suggested, some hidden agency was going to hunt down and kill another of their sisters. Lynn wouldn't let that happen.

"Dude, let it go," Luna sighed, "There's no cure."

"So?!" Lynn rounded on her older sisters, "That doesn't mean we should just stand back and let total strangers kill her like an animal!"

"What do you suggest, then?" Luan asked.

Lynn cried a little at what she was about to suggest.

"We kill her ourselves," she croaked, "She deserves that much, doesn't she?"

"Lynn," Leni said, softly, "We… we can't."

"We're not trained for it," Luna muttered.

"We don't have any equipment for it," Luan pointed out.

"Equipment? Training?" Lynn sneered, "We have all we need! We strike during the day, when they're weak."

"We don't even know where they are," Lori sighed.

"I do," Lynn confessed, "I told you I knew Lucy better than anyone. I found her chatroom and history – I know where she met the vampire."

"Y-you lied to the cops?" Luan was horrified until she realized they all had.

"Lynn, I am not letting you run off to get killed!" Lori seethed, "We've lost enough, already!"

"Don't lecture me!" Lynn snapped, "You say you loved Lisa and Lily, that you love Lucy, but are any of you willing to track down the scum who ruined our family? No! You're just sitting back and letting that jerk in there handle it."

"We're _children_ ," Luna pointed out, "I mean, I thought I was mature, man, but this… this is heavy."

"This isn't a game, Lynn," Luan reminded her.

"Everything's a game," Lynn countered, "None of you have ever understood that. The only thing that makes this one any different is that that creep who turned Lucy has made it personal. He _will_ die, and not to some 'agency', but to a Loud!"

"Lynn's right," Leni said, the determination in her voice startling her sisters, "That creep messed with the wrong family!"

"Yeah…" Luna felt their fury draw her in, "Yeah!"

"Luna, don't!" Luan didn't want her closest sister put in harm's way.

"No, Lynn's right!" Luna said, "I'm not going to cower in fear and let some punks working for the Man do my job for me. Lucy's our sister, and that means _we_ take care of her. Don't pretend you don't want revenge against the creep who did this."

"Of course, I do," Luan grumbled, "but I don't want to go to anymore funerals…"

"Looks like we lost the vote already, Luan," Lori smiled, tiredly, "What's the next step, though?"

"We go back to our old house," Lynn said, a chill running down everyone's spines, "I need my sporting equipment."

"I wouldn't mind picking up some sewing supplies," Leni smiled, "We could use vampire hunting costumes."

"Luan and I will stand guard, then," Luna said. Luan rolled her eyes at being conscripted, but didn't argue.

"I have some unfinished business to take care of," Lori said, "Let's go, then. Mom, dad, and everyone else will know something is up if we don't literally hurry."

She drove them across town, back to their house. They all felt their bravado drain as the pulled into the neighborhood. Their house loomed ahead, once so inviting, and familiar – now just a sinister, empty husk. It was a glaring reminder of what they had become. They pulled into the driveway, ignoring the crime scene tape on the front door. The police had left the scene largely unprotected; only one car, and the officer was fast asleep. It wasn't hard for the Loud daughters to sneak their way into their own house; they knew its secrets better than anyone, except maybe their father. Luan and Luna stayed in the van, pretending they only pulled in to repair the engine, just in case the officer woke up.

Lynn, Leni, and Lori worked their way upstairs with anxiety, unwilling to face the horror they had escaped. Part of them worried Lucy had returned, claiming the empty house as her lair. It was daytime, but she was still far more powerful than any of them. The more pressing fear, of course, was having to face the past. Where Lynn and Leni went to their own rooms, however, Lori approached the very room she wanted to avoid at all costs. Taking a deep breath, she entered Lisa and Lily's old room.

The police, or whoever, had done a fine job removing the bodies. Lori felt sick at the browning stains still decorating nearly every surface. It seemed like Lucy had gone out of her way to get as much blood as possible over as wide a surface as possible.

 _Not Lucy,_ she reminded herself.

"You came back," a familiar voice said, slightly distorted by static.

Lori turned to face her fears.

…

Lynn had already packed up her baseball bat and as much protective armor as she could find. She may have only been thirteen, but she realized even high-impact plastic wasn't going to do much against her sister's powers. She didn't even want to imagine what tricks her master had. As Lynn finished packing a few extra bits and bobbles, she found herself staring at her sister's empty bed. Within a few moments, she was laying on it.

"Luc…" she murmured into the sheets.

Lynn was desperate for something – _anything_ – to remind her of her undead and missing sister. She wanted, desperately, to feel residual body heat, or to smell her unusual soap ingrained into the sheets. Something to make the pain of losing her seem less real. The jock knew she couldn't kill Lucy, no matter how hard she tried to act like she could. Her mission was a near-suicidal one, a vain exercise in futile revenge because, honestly, she couldn't live without Lucy. She was a sister like no other, and her closest friend and confidant.

"I suppose there's nothing for it…" she muttered to herself, hardly noticing the tears streaming from her eyes and soaking the sheets, "If we kill her master, and she's not cured… there's nothing we can do. It's okay, Luc. I won't let you die alone."

…

Leni had already made the trip to the van a few times, dropping off her impressive array of fabrics and sewing equipment. She had even managed to pack a few of her woodshop projects in case she needed a break. She wasn't as good as Lana at carpentry, but that was fine. Leni also brought along her various tools of the trade – sharp, dangerous tools. They probably wouldn't do much against vampires, since they weren't blessed, or silver, or wooden stakes, or garlic, or anything else she'd seen in movies.

But they'd hurt.

"Hopefully it'll hurt them as much as they've hurt us," she muttered to herself, so quietly neither of her sisters heard her.

…

Lori still wasn't sure how to feel about the hologram. It looked and sounded like Lisa in every detail. Every strand of hair, even the smudges on her glasses, and even her lisp. It even acted like her. The only things that ruined the illusion were the grainy quality, the slight static, and the fact it was only projected in shades of blue and grey. Just like something out of _Star Wars_ , but Lisa had always had a soft spot for sci-fi, even if she refused to admit it.

"You asked me to come back," Lori pointed out.

"Still, I wasn't sure if you would," hologram Lisa said, rubbing her chin as she calculated, "Familial deaths create many emotional responses – responses that are difficult to predict. Seeing a virtual version of myself so soon after my passing… there was a high probability you would have felt 'creeped out' and never returned."

"Why did you… do this?" Lori asked, still struggling to face the hologram. Despite the quality, it seemed so real… as if Lisa had never died.

"Insurance," Lisa shrugged, "I work with radioactive materials, various hazardous elements, toxins, poisons, explosives, and the occasional doomsday weapon. Even with my precautions, the chances for me dying or being put into a coma were too high to ignore. I created this hologram program – a virtual duplicate of myself, capable of helping my family cope."

"It's not working much," Lori admitted.

"I never got around to testing it, seeing as it only activates upon my death," hologram Lisa's snide smile fell into an inquisitive frown, "How are you and the others holding up?"

"Not well," Lori confessed, "We're literally being ripped apart by this. Poor choice of words…"

"I reviewed the footage, as well as the data I gathered prior to my… passing," hologram Lisa fixed her glasses, unnecessarily, "The tests were still running after the police cleared out. They were too afraid to tamper with my equipment, since they didn't know what anything was."

"Y-you've found a cure?" Lori brightened up.

"No," hologram Lisa shook her head, dismay dripping into her voice, "Whatever is affecting Lucy, it is beyond mortal understanding. The source is nothing of this realm."

"So, like, there's no hope?" Lori slid down the dresser she had been leaning against onto her haunches.

"Not so, my eldest sibling," hologram Lisa smiled once more, "I've been saving a time machine for just such an emergency as this. It can only send one person back into their past self with their current memories."

"They just take over their old bodies?" Lynn asked, having entered the room without Lori noticing. Lisa's hologram was unperturbed by the intrusion.

"Precisely," she nodded, "Two of the same substance cannot exist at the same time in the same universe. The rules are similar to interdimensional travel. I sent Lincoln to an alternate reality once, but he was forced to inhabit a… different version of himself."

"Which of us is going back, then?" Lynn asked.

"I'm the oldest," Lori said, "I'll go back and keep Lucy from talking to that vampire."

"No offense, Lori, but she won't listen to _you_ ," Lynn snorted, "She won't even believe you if you tell her everything she's done!"

"So, I should send _you_?" Lori raised an eyebrow, "I might as well send Luan or Leni."

"Do you want her to listen or not?" Lynn growled.

"I don't mean to alarm either of you," Lisa interjected, "but whoever returns to the past should address the vampire crisis before it starts. I suspect Lucy was but one victim out of many."

"What makes you say that?" Lynn asked.

"After processing the data, it is clear to me Lucy was not aware of your plans to track down the vampire," Lisa explained, "yet her master forced her to move against us shortly after. Someone, also serving her master, must have caught wind of your plan, and warned him. I believe Lincoln mentioned another goth girl named Haiku?"

"Yeah, Lucy's friend," Lynn said before growling, "You don't think she betrayed Lucy, do you?"

"If she did," Lisa noted, "I don't think she had a choice."

"So, what's the plan?" Lori asked.

"If you go back in time now, without any information," Lisa said, "you could save Lucy, but you'd still have to deal with her master and whoever else he turned. If you talk to Haiku, perhaps you can figure out when the first child – for there are surely more than Lisa and Haiku, alone – was turned. We can send one of you back, then, to deal with the crisis before it begins. This course of action will not only save Lucy, Lily, and myself, but also every child turned by this unknown criminal. You could, possibly, save thousands."

"No pressure or anything," Lynn muttered, "I know where to find, Haiku."

"Wait," Lori said, saying a brief farewell to Lisa's hologram before she followed the jock outside, "Lynn, stop! You can't seriously think this is a good idea?"

"It's not," Lynn agreed, "but someone has to confront Haiku. It may as well be someone close to her age, and I'm not going to put Lincoln in anymore danger."

"At least take him with you!" Lori pleaded as they exited the house. Luan, Luna, and Leni were already waiting, keeping an eye on the sleeping cop.

"Take Lincoln?" Lynn scoffed, "He's not even out of the hospital, yet! I don't want him going into _another_ coma, anyway."

"Wait, take Lincoln where?" Luna asked as Lynn threw her equipment into the back of the van.

"Lynn is going to confront Haiku," Lori explained, "Lisa is pretty sure Haiku is another servant of the same vampire that turned Lucy."

"Lisa?!" Luan, Luna, and Leni exclaimed.

"A hologram of Lisa," Lori sighed.

"Oh…" Leni was despondent, but the rocker and comedian hadn't gotten their hopes up.

"Lisa thinks Haiku may have ratted us out to her master, who forced Lucy to…" Lynn trailed off, "Anyway, she's the only one outside of the five of us and Lincoln who knew what we were up to."

"I guess it'd make sense to start with her," Luan said.

"Oh, and there's a time machine," Lori added, almost as an afterthought, "Once we have the information we need, we can send one of us back to stop this whole mess before it starts. We would literally be saving the day."

"Only one, huh?" Luna rubbed her chin, "What if they fail?"

"I'm sure the time machine would still work," Lynn shrugged, "I'll just tell you about what will happen, then we prepare in case I fail."

"You?" Luan snickered, "No offense, Lynn, but you're thirteen. We should send Lori."

"I'm Lucy's closest friend," Lynn snapped as she got into the van with the rest of her sisters, "She'll listen to me."

"But will the rest of us?" Luna pointed out, "Whoever goes back in time will have to have some serious credibility. Lori is the only one we'd trust."

"But she can't handle the vampire!" Lynn argued.

"Just focus on getting the information from Haiku," Luan said, calmly, "We'll have your back."

"We need Lincoln to do this, anyway," Leni pointed out, "He, like, set up the last meeting."

"So, we wait for Lincoln to return, then," Lori nodded agreement at the plan.

She drove the Loud siblings back to their respective temporary abodes. At the prospect that the past could be rewritten, they each felt their foreboding evaporate as they approached their homes. Luan blushed when Benny gave her a sympathy hug – the first time since the incident that she remembered her feelings for him. Luna was similarly flustered having dinner with Sam and her parents. Even Lynn seemed chipper, her happiness raising the twins' and her parents' spirits.

Things were looking up.

 **Yeah, I put in an opportunity to undo the character deaths because, well… I don't like character deaths :/**


	5. Chapter 5

**So, I saw the new** ** _It_** **movie (three times). I loved it. Realized some similarities with the fic, namely the supernatural creature living in the sewers and feeding on children. Trying to get this in by Halloween…**

Haiku tapped her fingers in anxiety as she looked at the message she had received from Lincoln. Lucy was missing, and Lynn and Lincoln were worried. By now everyone had heard about the murders, but Lincoln said he and Lynn were convinced Lucy had been taken. Lincoln was feeling heartbroken and needed someone to talk to, someone who was also close to Lucy. Of course, Haiku knew exactly what had happened and where Lucy was being held. She couldn't deny the request to meet up; that'd be too suspicious, especially if the Louds were aware of vampires already.

Sighing, Haiku texted a time at their usual meeting place, which Lincoln quickly responded to. She wondered why Lynn was tagging along, but since Lucy and her had been the closest, it wasn't surprising she'd be as devastated – likely _more_ devastated – than Lincoln. After getting ready, Haiku made her way to the poetry club.

…

"Alright," Lincoln muttered as the conversation ended, "I think she bought it."

"So," Lynn looked from over Lincoln's shoulders to her older sisters, "what's the game plan?"

"You two go in and ask questions," Lori said, simply.

"Don't try to intimidate her," Leni suggested, "Remember, Haiku is Lucy's best friend. I'm sure, deep down, she regrets being involved and wants to help her."

"Just remember to make sure she's a vampire first," Luan added, "I mean, if she's not, then this is just a waste of time."

"Lisa seemed pretty certain," Lori said.

"A _hologram_ of Lisa," Luan noted, bitterly.

"Whatever!" Lori snapped, "That hologram is just as smart as her! I _trust_ her."

"Luan and I," Luna stepped in, putting a calming hand on her roommate, "will be right behind you guys the whole time, _incognito_ -like."

"You two?" Lynn smirked, "Stealthy?"

"No offense," Luan managed a laugh, "but none of us really wants to see Lincoln go to the hospital again – or you, for that matter."

"Well, let's just get the information," Lincoln said, "Then one of us can use the time machine, go back to before this begins, and stop it all from happening."

"What if it started before we were born?" Leni asked, causing everyone to turn towards her, "Well, like, the time machine only sends us into our past selves, right? What if this creep has been doing this stuff for, I don't know, millions of years or something?"

"There's nothing we can do for them, then," Luna sighed, "We can only help those from a little bit ago."

"Come on, Lynn," Lincoln sighed as he stood up, "We need to get going."

"Right," the jock mumbled, following her brother out the door.

The rocker and comedian put on their disguises and followed them out the door. Luna, to her credit, had put effort into her disguise, even though it was really just a Slash costume – the different clothes went a great way to keeping her hidden, and her top hat and shades covered her most distinguishing features while allowing her to fit in at the gothic club. Luan, though… Well, Luna couldn't recognize her, so that was good. The comedian had put on a suit, let her hair down, and was wearing those obnoxious Groucho Marx glasses with the nose and moustache…

All four siblings reached the poetry club within a few minutes of each other, Lincoln and Lynn going to the booth Haiku was sitting in, while Luna and Luan took a booth right behind them. Haiku hadn't seemed to notice the second group. Both entertainers kept an ear open for the group behind them.

"Firstly," Haiku began, "I want to extend my deepest condolences. What happened to your family was… awful."

"Thanks," Lynn muttered through gritted teeth.

"We appreciate hearing that," Lincoln said. Haiku frowned as she heard a clicking sound under the table with her enhanced senses. "Listen, Haiku… You were the only person outside of my older sisters who knew Lucy was a vampire and that we were trying to cure her. We've come to the conclusion you must also be a vampire, and that you ratted us out to your master."

"Or one of your other sisters is the vampire," Haiku forced a smirk, "Or Lucy acted alone. Aren't vampires' needs supposed to be overwhelming?"

"So," Lincoln smiled, slowly, "now you believe Lucy's a vampire? I thought you'd try and tell me we were in shock, or something."

"I… I didn't think calling you crazy would be appropriate," Haiku cleared her throat.

"Quit covering it up," Lynn snapped, "We know what you are. We know you betrayed your best friend."

"I did _not_ betray her," Haiku said without thinking, "I tried to help her!"

Realizing what she had let slip, the goth moved to leave the booth but stopped at a gesture from Lincoln.

"If you leave this booth, I'll shoot you," he said with a cold smile. Lynn looked at him in surprise and even Luna and Luan peered over the booth, wide-eyed.

"With what?" Haiku eyed the table, remembering the click.

"I, uh, _borrowed_ my dad's pistol," Lincoln explained, "and had a silver bullet. It was a gift from Pop-pop – some kind of trinket from an old TV show."

"What?" Lynn asked, looking under the table and quickly hitting her head trying to get back out, "Holy shi- you weren't kidding!"

"Linc, what the heck?!" Luna whisper-hollered over Haiku's head, earning a surprised stare, "You can't just steal dad's gun!"

"I didn't even know dad _had_ a gun," Luan muttered.

"Alright, then," Haiku sighed in defeat, seeing she was surrounded and had a potentially lethal weapon pointed at her, "What now? Clearly if you wanted to kill me, you'd have done it already."

"We want to help Lucy," Lynn explained, "and we think maybe you do, too."

"Tell us where the master is," Lincoln said, calmly, "Tell us when this all started."

Haiku gripped the table in frustration, her fingers cracking the wood.

"There's nothing you can do," Haiku said, sadly, "You can't turn us back."

"No," Lynn admitted, "but we can stop the master. Tell us when he started turning kids here."

"There's no harm in that," Haiku chuckled, mirthlessly, "He arrived at my request nearly a year ago."

"At your re-" Lynn blinked, then seethed with rage.

"I had no idea things would end this way," Haiku sighed, "I invited him here because I loved him, but he brought his… cohorts with him, and started turning other children. I… just wanted us to be together…"

"Tell us where he is, tell us when he came here," Lincoln said, calmly, "give us a date."

"January 2nd," Haiku said, drying the tears that had formed in her eyes, "not that that will help you. The past is passed."

"Tell us where he is," Lynn said, "or Lincoln shooting you will be the least of your worries."

"I suppose there's no harm…" Haiku said, "You'll never survive if you do go. He's in the-"

Suddenly, Haiku twitched, her mouth opening wider, and wider, and wider.

The Loud siblings recoiled as the vampire's jaw unhinged like a snake's and two savage canines were unleashed from her gums. Her fingers cracked the table, and in the instant Lincoln and Lynn looked at the fissure, Haiku used her immeasurable strength to rip the table from its floor fastenings and flip it onto them. Before the older siblings could react, Maggie and several other goths hissed and jumped to intervene. The comedian and rocker widened their eyes. The goths! Why hadn't they noticed the connection sooner?!

"You want to see the master so bad?" Haiku's face returned to its original, marble calm, but there was a darkness in her eyes that didn't belong to her. She was no longer in control. "You shall see him, soon enough."

A gunshot went off and Haiku was pushed forward as bullet entered the back of her chest. Black blood spewed from her front, spraying at Luna and Luan's feet.

"Nice shot!" Lynn hollered, slugging a stunned Lincoln in the arm.

"Th-that was a _real_ silver bullet?!" the boy gaped.

Haiku staggered while her allies looked in horror. Then the goth laughed as the wound healed up. In truth, the inner Haiku had been terrified and hurt, but the master wouldn't let such base emotions show on his puppet.

"An excellent attempt," the thing controlling Haiku smirked, "I'm impressed not only by your marksmanship, but also by your possession of a real silver bullet. Alas, you forgot one crucial detail."

"Which was?" Lincoln gulped, knowing he was out of ammo.

"The silver needs to be blessed," the Haiku-puppet grinned, maliciously, "Take them. The master will enjoy finishing what he started with this troublesome Loud family."

"Sorry about this," Maggie muttered as she bound Luan's hands, "You were an excellent mime. I have a lot of respect for you as an artist."

"I'm sure that'll keep me going while I'm being eaten alive, thanks," Luan scowled at her acquaintance, forcing the moody teen to look at the ground in shame.

"Try not to make this difficult," Silas sighed as he looked at Lynn. Haiku was already holding Lincoln over her shoulder while another goth was binding Luna's wrists.

"You're that boy Lucy likes!" the jock snapped, feeling tears sting her eyes at all the betrayal, "She trusted you! How could you let her go down this road?"

"I already went down it," Silas shrugged, sighing, "so have plenty of others. We haven't had to kill anyone, yet… The master treated us good until Lucy. We never saw it coming."

"So, what?" Lynn sneered, "You're just going to keep serving him? Do you _enjoy_ killing family and friends?"

"Sigh," the goth huffed, "no, we don't."

"Then resist!" Lynn said, only now noticing her other siblings were bound and gagged.

"We can't," Silas said, sadly, "We're slaved to his will – if we resist, he simply takes over and makes us do what he wants anyway. Then we're punished…"

"The price of abandoning your humanity," Lynn spat, "Alright, take me to your leader. Get your stupid rope out of my face! You don't need to tie my wrists; what am I going to do?"

Silas looked at Haiku who only shrugged. Haiku turned and led the coven deeper into the gothic poetry club, to one of the bathrooms that had always been closed for renovations. It had secretly been opened up into the sewers by the staff, which were now enthralled servants of the vampires. Haiku carried Lincoln over her shoulder as easily as if he were a pillow, jumping down steep drops with inhuman grace. Maggie, Silas, and their fourth member followed suit. Silas didn't carry Lynn, but helped her navigate the pitch black of the sewers. Finally, the darkness began to ebb slightly, a combination of their mortal eyes adjusting and a faint light from the lair. It was still painfully dark, and the Loud siblings flinched back from skittish movements, half-crazy mutterings, and bestial sounds just beyond their vision.

"Welcome," Haiku outstretched her arms, "to the Lair."

"Very good, Haiku," a surprisingly deep and rich voice said. Haiku shivered in anticipation, sighing like a contented sweetheart, while the other vampires shifted uncomfortably. "So, these are the children I spared, eh? This is why I say to leave no survivors – they always come back to haunt you."

The youth didn't look that old, and yet his voice and manners suggested age beyond reason. His voice, especially, was almost intoxicating. Each of the girls shook their heads in an effort to clear their minds; only Lincoln seemed unaffected, other than some nausea. Considering they were in a gore-slick sewer surrounded by monsters and about to die, nausea was a logical sensation.

"Now, my dear," the master lifted Haiku's chin with a lover's touch before forcing her to look at the siblings kneeling in gruel, "kill them. Kill them all."

The haze in her eyes faded and she crinkled her brow.

"Sh-shouldn't they see their sister first?" the goth asked, some desperation slipping into her voice. Her master smiled coldly, his eyes filled with annoyance, but he decided to indulge her a little more.

"Very well," he sighed, "I suppose it would be rude of me to deny them a last family reunion."

With a hand gesture, he commanded the young vampires to drag the bound Louds over to a dark pipe. They marched for what felt like half an hour, their footsteps echoing around them, until they stopped. With a snap of his fingers, torches lit up and cast a gloomy light around what was a dead end in the sewers. Chained spread-eagle across the dead-end wall was Lucy. She looked horrible, emaciated, almost broken. Her head shifted to look at her siblings through her matted bangs, then she turned away and let out a sound like an injured cat. Lynn felt her heart twist.

"There you are," the master gave a cocky grin, "Reunited, and it feels so good."

He tilted his head at the siblings, each of which had tears in their eyes if they weren't outright crying.

"She kills your younger siblings," he sighed, "and you weep for her."

" _You_ killed our younger siblings, creature!" Lincoln snapped, managing to get out of the weak grip of the child holding him, "I'll kill you!"

"Big words from such a small boy," the master smirked, despite being the same height, "Your hands are tied, you're unarmed, and even if you did have a weapon, you would be no match for my-"

A javelin slammed into his chest, startling the vampire as he toppled backwards. All eyes turned towards the entrance of the tunnel where Leni was still standing in a post-throwing stance. Lori was beside her carrying Lynn's open duffel bag, javelins and bats spilling out. While the vampires were stunned, the mortals ran forward to cut the bindings of their siblings. The master sat up, ripping the spear out of his chest and eying his subjects in bewilderment.

"Don't just stand there!" he roared, "Kill them!"

The goth kids shifted uncomfortably on their feet. Even Haiku seemed to have regained her senses. The master seethed. Why were children so difficult?

"Very well," he snapped, "I'll show you the power that will be yours one day – firsthand!"

Gliding through the air and allowing his face to shift into something more sinister, more akin to his unnatural, true self, the master landed amidst the Loud siblings just as they finished removing the last of the bindings. They backed up, grabbing improvised weapons from Lynn's bag as they went.

"That was a great throw, Leni," Lynn commented as she gave her bat a few practice swings.

"Aw, thanks!" Leni beamed, "You're totes too sweet!"

"We're literally about to die," Lori said, sweating bullets, "Can we, like, hold off on the congratulations?"

"I'm curious," the master looked down on them, beady red eyes peeking out of a wolfish face, "how the two of you managed to sneak through my entire coven, undetected."

"Oh, we… found a way in," Lori smirked, "You may have killed the genius in the family, but she left us some pretty neat toys."

"It hardly matters," the master stepped forward, swatting Lori backwards and making her siblings gasp, "Your weapons are all pathetic, as well; besides the boy's silver bullet – which he wasted – you all lack the means to kill me."

"You used a gun?" Lori asked, wide-eyed, at the boy who caught her.

"I borrowed dad's," Lincoln blushed.

"You stole dad's gun?!"

"You have bigger things to worry about," the master let his fangs extend, "After I finish with you, I'll make sure the rest of your family is finished off, too. No more Louds to bother us."

"Except," Lori snapped, "you literally didn't see this coming. Lisa! Six to beam up!"

"Sorry, Luc!" Leni waved at her bound sibling, "We'll, like, totally be back for you in the past!"

"…What?" the goth had time to ask before beams of light enveloped her siblings, temporarily blinding the sensitive vampires. When they opened their eyes, the Loud siblings had vanished.

"Allowing you into our coven," the master reverted back to his human form, glaring death at Lucy, "is proving to be a very big mistake."

Lucy only smirked at the vampire, which infuriated him further. The monster could torture her all he wanted, but the fact her family didn't blame her for her actions made her heart soar.

…

The Loud siblings materialized in Lisa's room at their old house, the hologram already waiting for them. Immediately, most of the children vomited from the curious sensation of translocation. Even Lori and Leni, who had already gone through it, looked uneasy.

"Okay, I have a few questions…" Luan said, wiping her mouth and standing on uneasy legs, "First, when did we get a teleporter?"

"I've had a teleporter for approximately two years now," Lisa's hologram explained, "It's one of my earliest inventions. I never saw a practical use for it until now."

"Ok, so you three just planned to extract us or something?" the comedian glared at her older sisters, "Without telling us?!"

"I insisted on the secrecy," Lisa explained, "If I had to hear you say 'Beam me up, Scotty,' I think I would have lost it."

"You denied me the greatest joke of my life!" Luan threw her arms into the air, "When will there ever be another set up for that?!"

"I have a few questions of my own," Luna interrupted, "Lincoln, you took dad's gun and loaded it?! Without telling any of us?!"

"Our paternal unit possesses firearms?" the hologram of Lisa asked, "Odd, considering his liberal stance on most political issues."

"Can we stop freaking out about the gun?" Lincoln scowled, "Pop-pop gave me a silver bullet, and I figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right?"

"I literally cannot _believe_ Pop-pop gave you a silver bullet," Lori groaned, "He didn't even give me silver earrings, and he gave you a functioning bullet made out of the stuff!"

"It was a trinket from a TV show!" Lincoln argued, "I didn't think it would really work, anyway!"

"I have a question, too," Lynn said, turning to look at Leni, "Where the heck did you learn to throw javelin?!"

"I don't know," Leni shrugged.

"How did you two find us, anyway?" Luna asked.

"The tracking implants?" Lisa said as if it were obvious, "Oh, right, you didn't know about those."

"Wait, if we all had tracking implants, why didn't we use Lucy's to find her?" Lynn demanded.

"The tracking devices are powered by the subject's heartbeat," the holographic genius explained, "Lucy's heart quit beating several weeks prior to her abduction, leaving the device thoroughly useless. Anymore questions?"

The Loud siblings looked at each other for a little bit, thinking. They had asked and answered all the most pertinent questions. All except one.

"Why the heck didn't we go over this stuff?" Luan asked, "Nobody told us about the tracking devices, or the teleporter, or the gun."

"We wanted to have the element of sulfur," Leni explained, earning a flat stare from Lisa's hologram.

"Surprise, dear," Lori sighed.

"Ooo!" Leni clapped her hands, "I love parties!"

"If I had revealed the implants," Lisa explained, "you would have begun acting weird. You might also have started expecting perfect results if you knew about the teleporter. However, I had not calculated the firearm."

"We literally didn't know about the teleporter or implants until, like, fifteen minutes after you left," Lori explained, "It was part of Lisa's secret plan."

"Wait, so you three had _another_ plan in case ours failed," Lincoln held his fingers to his temples to stem a headache, "but you didn't tell any of us?"

"If you were aware of the plan," Lisa lisped, "it would have lost the element of surprise. No offense to any of you, but three of you are probably the least subtle members of the family."

"Who you callin' unsubtle?" Lynn scowled.

"I'll agree with that," Luna conceded.

"Well, they don't call us the _Louds_ for nothing!" Luan giggled.

"I feel oddly gratified," Lincoln confessed, happy he wasn't labeled 'unsubtle'.

"The operation was a success, with Lucy being the only possible casualty – and even that's unproven," Lisa smiled, "We now know the exact date the vampire arrived and began turning children, as well as his first victim, and the location of his lair. All we have to do is select one of you to travel back in time and warn the rest of us."

"I think we all agreed," Lori stepped forward, "I am literally the best choice."

"Well, now that I think about it," Luna stepped up, "maybe Lincoln should go?"

"What?!" Lori asked, "We're not going to listen to him!"

"We will if he says one of his friends is in trouble," Luna pointed out, "I mean, if any of us go back and say 'vampires will take over', none of us are going to believe… us. But, if one of us says 'my friend needs help', it's just vague enough to work."

"That's… a very good idea, actually," Lynn tsked, "But why Lincoln? Why not Lori, or me?"

"Why not me?!" Luan demanded. Each of her siblings stared at her with a deadpan expression. The comedian pouted. Tell a few jokes and suddenly no one takes you seriously.

"Well, firstly, Haiku _is_ a friend of Lincoln," Luna pointed out, "Secondly, he's young enough that each of us would do _anything_ for him if he asked it. After Lynn, each of us is too old."

"What?" Leni asked, "We're not, like, too old! I'd still help any of you."

"She means we're not kids, like Lynn and the rest of them," Lori explained.

"Kid?" the jock scoffed, "I sit at the grownup table!"

"What she means, Lynn," Luan tried to explain, "when a fourteen-year-old has a problem, people sort of quit caring, but when a preteen has a problem, well, suddenly they care. You happen to be on the cusp, so to speak."

"What, so my next birthday, _suddenly_ no one is going to care about my problems, anymore?" Lynn asked. Her older siblings shrugged. "Wow, that sucks."

"It's part of growing up," Luan said, "It's a dog-eat-dog world, Lynn."

"So, do we agree, then?" Luna asked, "Lincoln should go back?"

"If he asked me for help with a friend, I'd definitely go further than I would for Luan," Lori agreed, "No offense."

"None taken," the comedian said, "I agree. It should be Lincoln."

"Totally Lincoln," Leni nodded.

Everyone looked to Lynn, who rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, fine," she sighed, "He's about as close to Lucy as I am, anyway."

"Alright, then," Lisa said, "now that that issue has been resolved, I'll start up the time machine. The process will take about three hours to get everything charged up and calculated."

"Three hours?!" the other siblings gaped.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the hologram held her hands up, "Can any of you chart a course through a rip in the space-time continuum without destroying the universe or damaging the timeline in _three hours_? No? I didn't think so."

"What do we do until then?" Lynn asked.

"How about you read a book?" Lisa snapped.

"Yeesh," Luan whispered to Luna, "Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the motherboard."

"I can hear you!" the hologram shouted, forcing the Loud siblings into silence, "Perhaps you should wait elsewhere. This much calculation is demanding a high percentage of my CPU. It's draining memory from other parts of my programming, such as etiquette. It would not be conducive to wait here with me, as my program will likely be volatile and aggressive."

"Nah, really?" Lincoln asked, sarcastically as he led the rest of his siblings out of the room.

"Ingrates," Lisa's hologram muttered after they closed the door.

…

Two and a half hours passed without incident, each of the Louds growing steadily happier as the prospect of undoing the deaths of their siblings approached reality. Would they even remember this horrible time? Would there be some ghost of a memory among them, sitting in their subconscious? Or would they all be blessedly freed from the horror? Only one of them would have to carry the burden of the memories, and as the clock ticked down, the sisters' thoughts drifted towards their selfless brother.

Lori prayed the burden wouldn't be too much to bear.

Leni hoped the psychological scars would heal.

Luna wished her brother would still enjoy life like he used to.

Luan wanted him to remember how to laugh.

And Lynn… Lynn hoped that saving their sisters would give him the same satisfaction and closure it would give her.

The jock looked out her window, watching as the last rays of the sun disappeared over the houses and left their neighborhood in darkness. The realization that night had fallen on them made her eyes widen in shock. How had they not thought about that? She checked her clock and saw that they still had about thirty minutes left until Lisa was done with her calculations. That was a lot of time for things to go wrong.

As if to prove her point, the lights cut out and the clock died. Curses and a shrill scream came from each of the occupied rooms as the Loud siblings gathered into the hall, eyes adjusting to the darkness. Light still came from Lisa's room, but none of them were surprised that she had her own sources of power. The youths huddled, back-to-back, Leni cowering behind Lori. Aside from her, the others tried not to show their fear.

"M-maybe it was just a blackout?" Luna suggested, "Or a blown fuse."

"Y-yeah," Luan forced a grin, her pearly whites and silver braces catching some light. A loud thud from downstairs made her yelp. "M-maybe that was the power trying to come back on?"

"We need weapons," Lynn said, making a dash back into her room.

"Lynn, wait!" Lori hissed, but stayed with the others.

The jock searched in the darkness, fumbling for anything that could work. All she found was her prized baseball bat. It was one of her more cherished possessions, a ridiculously heavy oak beast of a thing that was hardened by age. The thing had accumulated a wealth of stories and legends, all embellished upon by previous owners. Lynn hoped half of them were true now, at least.

"Lynn!" Lori shrieked.

The jock ran back into the hall in time to see Lori dragged down the stairs into deeper darkness, the rest of her sisters huddling together in panic. Lynn was about to charge down after Lori, overwhelmed by a sudden sensation of guilt for abandoning them in the first place, but a dozen pairs of reflective eyes in the shadows stopped her. Lori's screams cut off into gurgles and then silence, making Lynn's heart fall.

"Lynn, get back here!" Lincoln hissed, the effort of not breaking down in shame clearly writ on his face. He couldn't stand losing any more sisters! Seeing his pain, Lynn lost it.

"I'm going to put you creeps back into the ground!" she roared, charging at the nearest set of eyes, "Once and for all!"

She swung as the vampire opened her fanged mouth wide. Lynn forced herself to believe it would hurt the creature standing in her way, desperately willed it to live up to its insane reputation. Her eyes widened as the bat glowed slightly before making contact, smashing into the vampire's cheek with such force that the creature toppled over into a heap, clutching the side of its face as if burned.

Everyone in the hall, living and dead, looked at Lynn and her bat in awe. Lynn, herself, stared at the wood in her hand as if it were a holy relic, then grinned viciously at the vampires. She combated the vampires as they came, swatting them aside as if they were baseballs. Sure, they were faster and stronger, but as soon as the bat touched their cold flesh, they cried out in pain and fell to her own strength. They kept coming, never truly defeated, and she kept batting them aside, narrowly dodging their own ferocious swipes.

"How is she doing that, Lincy?!" Leni asked, now hiding behind her only brother for protection. By now, Luna and Luan were also clinging to him, unsure of what to do.

"I-I don't know!" Lincoln confessed, "Either that bat is magic, or… Of course!"

"What?" Luna asked, more awestruck by their sister singlehandedly fending off a vampire coven than fearful.

"Faith is a vampire's greatest weakness," their brother explained, "Lynn always goes on and on about how great that bat is, even though the stories are obviously fake – but she _believes_ them. It's that belief that allows her to hurt them."

"So, what?" Luan furrowed her brow, "If we believe we can hurt the vampires, then we can?"

"Not quite," Lincoln shook his head, growing worried as Lynn's movements slowed from fatigue, "You remember how in movies you can keep vampires back with crosses? Well, faith is the key. You have to have faith in something… _higher_. All I've ever seen in movies is crosses, but hypothetically it could be anything symbolic of what you believe in – of anything you worship with the same intensity of a religion."

"What the heck is a baseball bat supposed to be then?" Luan snorted, "Is her religion sports?"

All of them blinked at the realization that, yes, Lynn's religion was indeed sports. Her undying faith in the spirit of the game had long been obsessive, bordering on the religious, but none of them had ever thought her unwavering faith in sport culture would ever come in handy outside of sports themselves. Clearly, none of them had ever expected to be attacked by vampires with only her faith in sports to protect them.

"Go Lynn!" Lincoln cheered as she smashed a demonic-looking Maggie down the stairs. His sisters joined him in cheering the jock. It gave her a second wind, but the vampires soon slipped past her towards her other siblings.

Screaming and without defense, the siblings bolted in different directions, trying to drag each other with them and stumbling into a heap. Lynn growled in frustration, as much at the vampires as at her siblings' bumbling. She tried to rush towards the vampires already upon her siblings, but a powerful hand grabbed her shoulder. With a growl, Lynn slammed the pommel of her hardwood bat into the beast's face, shattering Rocky's face in an eruption of coagulated blood.

Lynn turned to stare in horror as her siblings feebly threw their fists against the vampires, only for every effort to fail. They were snatched up, throats bared, before the blood-drinkers sank their teeth into the exposed flesh. Lynn gaped as she watched the literal life of her siblings drain away before her. Tears flowed freely, but she couldn't even process that she was crying. Suddenly she felt a presence behind her.

"Poor Lynn," a familiar voice cooed, mockingly, "you couldn't win. You _literally_ never stood a chance."

Completely horrified at this loss, overwhelmed by her failure when it mattered, Lynn shook with unrestrained fear as she turned to face a resurrected Lori. Blonde hair disheveled, blood running down her neck, eyes catching an unnatural light, she looked down on the jock with a too-large grin splitting her face. Lynn could only mouth half-words as she backed away, unable to speak.

"Join us, Lynn," Lori smiled in a perversion of her usual motherly visage, "We can be a family again. The Master can literally commune with the dead – we can speak with Lily and Lisa again! Isn't that amazing?"

"Totes amazing!" Leni confirmed from behind Lynn, making the jock twirl in shock. Already, her other siblings were rising, grinning at whatever psychic visions the vampire lord was feeding them. Lynn felt her back bump into Lisa's door as she backed away. She threw it open and slammed the door behind her, knowing the wood would be useless against the supernatural beings.

Suddenly, a metal blast door slammed down over the door, just as fists ripped through wood as easily as paper. The undead Louds growled in frustration as they were denied their target. Lynn turned to face Lisa's hologram. She seemed unworried, but there was also a great sadness to her holographic face.

"Is it time?" Lynn managed to croak.

"Yes," Lisa nodded, "and not a moment too soon.

Lisa instructed her older sister on how to enter the pod, walking her through what to expect.

"I know it will likely seem like all of this had been some horrible dream," the genius said, "but you must remember, or we'll be here again. In fact, we might have already done this before."

"Don't worry, Lis," Lynn forced a confident grin as the time machine slid shut. It faded once she couldn't see anymore, but she talked to herself anyway. "If there's even a chance this future can happen; I'll do everything in my power to prevent – with or without you all believing me…"

A blinding flash and the sickly sensation of being teleported were the last things she could recall before blacking out.

 **Bah, I failed to meet the Halloween deadline :/**


End file.
